


Killing you

by meowmeow518



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Betrayal, Dibck, Kinda, Maybe - Freeform, Moth DNA, Mothdib, Other, Owl DNA, Scenes Reminiscent of Eating Disorders, ZaDr, at all, bottom zim, flower zussy, flussy, membrane is not a good person, other various DNA, slowburn?, top dib, zim and dib kiss the movie, zussy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:02:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26586319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meowmeow518/pseuds/meowmeow518
Summary: Dib is missing. Zim is confused, and Membrane is an asshole.
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 83





	1. Caught off guard

“Is that it then?” Dib looked at his knuckles clenched, nearly white on the table. “I’m not your son.” He felt dizzy. “I’m your clone.”

“That is correct.” Membrane looked as detached as he always did from across the table. Though it wasn’t easy to find emotion behind his goggles and white coat. 

Dib took another drink of the tea his  _ gene donor _ had made him. Gene donor. What else do you call the original? The paranormal scientist had come home very late last night. Three days late actually. It wasn’t his fault; He had gotten pretty banged up from that last encounter. It had been hard to tell what the creature was. All Dib could remember was a flurry of claws and black fur. He had been too busy trying to get away to focus on what it might have been. When he finally turned around to see what had pounced on him, it was gone. Which of course it was. That was Dib’s luck after all. What really mattered was he now had a sample he could at the very least figure out if its been documented before.The investigator had been excited… until he found his tires had been slashed. Oh well. He had rations and two good legs. Forty miles was nothing. Well, Membrane had disagreed. Upon coming home, Dib was sure he would receive the lecture of a lifetime. Usually he didn’t have to worry about his father. Membrane was typically on one business trip or another. This time however the scientist had a three day weekend. They were supposed to spend family time together but Dib had ruined it. So when the teenager walked into a very calm and content Membrane… it was just a hair bit unsettling. 

“You were an experiment.” Membrane paused. “The first one to make it to infancy at least. I had been so happy when you first opened your eyes.” From the way his goggles moved, Dib could only guess Membrane was smiling. “You may have been an experiment but… you were so important to me.” The professor sighed. “But… you have failed.”

“Because I’m not like you.” It wasn’t a question. 

“Because of a variety of things.” Membrane cleared his throat. “I believe something has gone amiss in the brain. I do know now that it must have been something that happened after you had fully developed into infancy.” Dib’s throat felt really tight. “Whatever the matter, we are going to have to try again.”

“What does that mean?” The whirlpool of hurt and fear was getting worse. Membrane was unpredictable. 

“It means nothing for you, aside from the fact that you can join the others.” 

The others… “What does that even mean?” The man sitting across from him didn’t respond. Dib’s eyes felt heavy and somehow it felt harder to breathe. It was hard to distinguish whether or not this was some kind of panic attack.

He got up.

“You should sit down, son.”

Son. His father. Oh fuck… why the the room moving? 

“You should shut the fuck up…  _ Dad _ . What did you do to me?” The boy stumbled, grabbing for the table to keep himself steady. “What the fuck did you do to me?” With that he collapsed. Dib took one last look at the ceiling slowly fading to nothing above him.

* * *

_ Lights passed above him, from the top of his head down towards his feet. There was a hand on his arm. Cool leather held him still. He was being wheeled off somewhere. He couldn’t think enough to move. He couldn’t scream. The best he got out was a slurred, “Hello?” To which there was no reply. Obviously.  _

_ He blinked and suddenly he was in a room. Someone was poking him with something and he couldn’t see enough to tell. He appeared to be upright now. He was still strapped but he could almost comprehend shadows, figures and someone with a silhouette that resembled his father.  _

**_!!!!!!!_ **

_ He screamed. It felt like fire had moved into his arm and the blaze was only spreading. It seemed even his bones were in pain. Then he threw up and as he felt someone wiping his mouth, everything started to blur again.  _

* * *

_ In and out of consciousness. Dib felt so cold. The concrete didn’t help either. He was pretty sure he had thrown up three times while making his way towards a mass in the corner. It was hard to see with the lack of light in the room. It was soft. Or at least softer that the hard floor. Lifting himself was out of the question. His back felt heavy and he was already nearly passing out from where he was. Dib made sure to leave his head closer to the edge of the bed. The boy was sure he would out of stomach to throw up, but who knows. Maybe he'd start heaving up blood. Dib could have sworn he saw a flash of magenta in the corner of his room. Something blinked at him. He wanted to investigate but he was already fading out.  _

* * *

_ Zim. Dib was sure he’d seen him. A flash of green, two blinking alien eyes. It was hard to see without light but it seemed to be getting better. At one point he was sure he’d seen the alien huddled up in the corner, knees pulled to his chest. Dib wanted to say something. He wanted to say anything. The boy was angry. If Zim was here why wasn’t he doing anything? Was it him? Did the alien manage to convince his father to betray him like this? The irken was a mystery, and really who could Dib trust at this point? For all he knew Gaz was probably celebrating getting her own gaming room. Dib made some kind of strangled sound at the blurred mess of green and pink in the corner. He wanted to shout but whatever noise he made seemed to have worked. Zim was gone.  _

* * *

The boy was awake. Finally. There was no blur this time. The room was still dark but Dib’s eyes adjusted much easier now. He looked around. The throw up was gone so they must have come in and cleaned. There was a pillow too. A single pillow with his mothman pillow case. 

How _ sweet _ ...

How nice of his father, giving him one piece of his childhood. One semblance of the humanity he’d stolen from his son. His  _ clone _ . Dib felt that knot in his throat grow. He felt so stupid. Dib was supposed to be smarter than this. Maybe he would have been if he’d just grown the way he was supposed to. He went to wipe his face-

But... his arm- it was soft. Dib was sure he wasn’t wearing anything. They must have given him a sweater for the cold. He looked down however and found black fluff seemingly mixed with little black feathers. Dib panicked for a moment, feeling his chest and it appeared that the fluff had spread from the bottom of his neck down to the tops of his knees. His fingernails were darker. They looked curved too. Dib turned to look for any other discoveries and felt himself hit the wall. He froze. His face felt wet and cold at this point. He shrugged and moved again, feeling something brush his shoulder. He turned again, slowly looking and finding a big black mass attaching itself to him. It appeared to be a similar case for the other side as well. Wings. Dib had wings. It felt strange to move them, to feel them colliding with the wall. They were unimaginably sore. It was hard to move them but having new limbs was too crazy and Dib simply could not resist investigating their full range of movement. It was hard to see but as the boy stretched out his wings he could feel them brush the sides of the walls. He wouldn’t be able to open them fully, at least not in this room. Moving them seemed to irritate his back. One could only expect pain in such a quick transformation. 

Wait…

How long had he been out? It couldn’t have been longer than three days. Or maybe it had been much longer. Dib was in and out of consciousness so much it was hard to tell. Membrane would know. His  _ father _ would know. A pit opened up in the teenager’s stomach. Dib didn’t know what to call him. He didn’t want to think about any of this, but it wasn’t as if Dib could really distract himself with anything else. He was trapped. Indefinitely caged in some room likely deeply hidden from any kind of anyone who might look for him. And who would really. Who would worry, or wonder where he’d been. He’d been missing for three days before this even happened and no one came looking. His arrival at three am didn’t help either. Membrane had likely made it look as if Dib was dead somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Likely eaten by some bear or left for dead. The boy wondered if his dad would at least send a search party out. Image was important after all. His face felt hot again and Dib choked out a sob. 

He might as well have been dead.

  
  
  



	2. Losing it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for situations resembling eating disorders, descriptions of graphic violence. Thoughts of cannibalism. 
> 
> In the last chapter we saw Membrane betray his son, revealing that Dib was only a clone of many failed attempts and only now had the Scientist realized his experiment had failed. He’s decided now to simply recycle Dib and use him for some other projects the professor had been working on. 
> 
> Dib is hurt so very much and now declared missing. 
> 
> Zim and Gaz are looking for him along side Membrane (lying bastard) Dib himself however is feeling his mind begin to slip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be warned that the chapter following this might get significantly worse with some gore and physical violence. (I’m not super good at warning for this stuff but I don’t want anyone to have a bad time reading fics)

So Dib became their lab rat. It was hard to tell the exact passage of time but every so often he would fall asleep and wake up in their room again. They had tried testing range of motion but Dib had managed to bat them away. He was punished for it of course but the sound of their stupid little cart hitting the floor was reward enough. The paranormal investigator had figured they were doing more than he knew. He would wake up with new scars every so often. There were times when he’d get sick. He’d trade off on vomiting and passing out for around four or five days and then it would be over. Probably testing his immunity to human viruses as well as whatever other pathogens the DNA they spliced him with was capable of getting. Dib had grieved a lot in the last month or so. It still hurt. He was starting to feel an odd numbness about it though. The investigator did everything he could to distract himself from the betrayal of it all. 

He thought about this strange DNA. Dib understood he resembled the mothman in some sense. Huge feathered wings. Two bent up antennae. He was a hybrid of some kind, that much was obvious. He knew it had to be owl dna. His eyesight had improved radically and the talons emerging from his fingers and toes were unmistakable. The fluff was odd. Dib figured he must have been fused with some type of furry bug-like creature. 

This was utterly ironic. The investigator of mysteries was now a mystery himself. Dib desperately wished he had a notebook of some kind. Anything he could do to record what was happening. Staying in this room was driving him crazy. He hadn’t seen Zim either. Not since that night. He knew he was hallucinating. There was no way in hell the little alien could have snuck in here and left. The Irken was crafty but Membrane labs was nearly impenetrable. Why would he though? Dib knew he was probably well on his way to taking over the world by now. Zim wasn’t always a genius but his plans were very often on the verge of working were it not for Dib standing in the way. The only hope Earth had was if Gaz took initiative to at least stall him until Dib reappeared. And he knew that was never going to happen. The hybrid would be trapped here until the end of time. 

Dib took a deep, shaky breath. 

Zim. The Irken was an irritating, loud-mouthed little brat. He hadn’t changed much since coming to Earth. He still wore that bright pink uniform, still wore the little black boots. The way they clicked on the floor used to drive him nuts. The way the Irken always insisted he knew what he was talking about, the way he lied almost continuously despite being utterly awful at it. There were those quiet moments too. Sometimes something would catch Zim off guard and he would laugh. Genuinely laugh. It was… nice. The alien hadn’t grown more than an inch either. Not since he’d first arrived over four years ago. The Irken had been so proud over that little inch. 

_ “Did you get taller?” _

Zim nearly glowed. The alien’s eyes sparkled as he had proudly puffed out his little chest.

_ “Why of course I did Dib-thing! I grew over twenty-five millimeters.” _

Dib smiled, laying face down on the dirty mattress. 

Yeah... Zim was cute. 

A nearly imperceptible hiss began and in moments, Dib was out again.

* * *

He was nowhere. In every crevice of every cave, no matter where Zim looked, Dib was gone. Seemingly in a moment, Dib had disappeared. The alien had been so sure, He had seen Dib lug himself into his own driveway three days late after one of his foolish trips into the woods. Zim had been satisfied with that and retreated to his base to rest. The morning after however, Dib did not resurface. He didn’t come slinking into class, most-likely tired from his ridiculous trek in the woods. He didn’t come in smelling like pine trees and sweat. The paranormal investigator was nowhere to be found. The alien was confused. Zim was quick to track down Dib’s sister-unit during lunch but Gaz didn’t appear to know where the stink-boy had run off to. She seemed convinced he was still out in some horrible middle-of-nowhere forest hunting big-feets. To be sure, Zim made sure to check the area where Dib first broke down. 

The voot cruiser had made the trip in less than ten minutes. The van he was traveling in was still there on the side of the highway, parked just down a tiny dirt road and hidden in the trees. The tracker he’d left in the vehicle was still present. None of this made sense. Membrane seemed to be the most suspicious in all of this. Which was odd. As far as Earth culture went, these so-called ‘parents’ were supposed to be as loyal to their spawn as Irkens were loyal to the empire. There was also the possibility of Membrane simply being a defective parental unit. Zim frowned but shook his head at the thought. Dib was an exemplary human being. Whatever happened could not have been too bad. The human was incredibly durable. He’d lasted for years against the invader and many other alien threats. Dib would resurface as he always did. Zim just needed to keep looking.

_ Hopefully _ .

* * *

Membrane carefully extracted their latest experimental drug while the nurse cleaned and prepared his son’s arm. The monster they had created stared nearly un-blinking at the scientist, glaring. At least he was quiet. Dib never seemed keen on words while they were working. It seemed he never wanted to speak regardless. Very odd.

Dib was strapped down from head to toe. His wings were bound as well. The last time they had allowed him any kind of movement he’d almost immediately disregarded their kindness and attempted to take down two nurses and one of Membrane’s good co-workers. For goodness sakes the man had children at home. He would have thought he’d raised his son with some manners but Dib had always been a bit rebellious. 

“Unfortunately we are going to have to cut your calorie intake.”

Dib blinked. His father never talked to him. 

“We’ve lost quite a bit of funding and you are only a recycled subject. The good news is that everything we’ve been working on has been going very well.” Membrane turned around, flicking the vial of whatever garbage he planned on injecting into Dib’s arm. “Your DNA melded nearly seamlessly to the found oddity. We believe it to be some kind of hybrid DNA. Something with traces of several mammals as well as some insects but more heavily leaning towards Aves.” Membrane’s goggles seemed to move, indicating that he was probably smiling with joy. “You are the first successful hybrid between two animal kingdoms! I knew you had to be resilient. After all, I took special care in creating you myself.” Membrane stepped closer with the needle. “You know, you were born in this very lab.”

As the needle was buried in his arm, the professor’s words began to slowly fade out. Everything in the room was blurry and unfocused and it wasn’t long before Dib passed out again. 

* * *

_ Zim was here again. He was in the corner of the room, huddled up, knees to his chest. It was hard to tell but he didn’t look scared. Zim’s eyes moved from the floor to him. The Irken leaned back, getting up from where he was though his eyes never left Dib.  _

_ The hybrid was limp against the bed in his corner of the room. Lying on his stomach with his head turned to watch as the alien drew closer. Cold sweat made its way down his face like ice. Zim was careful to step around the throw up left in various spots. The Irken leaned down, kneeling close to Dib’s face.  _

_ “You’re going to die here.” _

_ “I know…” _

_ Dib knew. Eventually Membrane would grow tired of him, the experiment would end and he would be disposed of. If he could though… he wanted to take the professor with him.  _

_ “I miss you.”  _

_ The alien didn’t respond. Dib didn’t really expect him to. _

* * *

The teacher drawled on at the front of the class, discussing some kind of meaningless history about the meat wars. Gaz was laying on her arms, head down, wondering if the idiot would even notice if she just got up and left. Soft muttering could be heard at the back of the class.

“I heard he might have just off-ed himself in the woods.” Some girl whispered at a volume that was hardly discreet. “My friend said they know someone whose dad is a cop.”

“Really?” Gaz could hear as the girl’s friend leaned in, chair creaking as she moved.

“He said they found the entire back of it painted with  _ Dib’s blood _ .”

That was a lie. It was an interesting lie but the van had been fairly untouched aside from it being a bit of a mess. Dib was never very clean. There were however claw marks on some trees just a half a mile into the woods from where her brother’s van was. No other DNA was found but the search had not stopped. Part of her hoped maybe he’d just gotten lost in some witch’s house. Maybe he was just trying to undo whatever curse or trickery he’d gotten himself into and soon enough he’d be home and Gaz could murder him for real this time. 

“You are sure this is where you last saw him?” Gaz was tired, sitting down at the seat across from Zim and unwrapping her ham sandwich she’d brought from home. School had not been a welcome distraction. She’d spent last night and several before scouring all of Dib’s paranormal activity hot-spots for some kind of lead. There was nothing. 

“Yes! For the last time yes!” Zim was nearly pulling at his wig in frustration. The Dib-sister simply could not believe Dib had made it home that night. It had been over a month now and Dib was still missing. It wasn’t that unusual. The idiot had gotten himself into all sorts of trouble before and could be missing for months at a time. What was odd was the fact that Zim wasn’t with him. The Irken did manage to track and lock onto the boy’s genetic signature but it seemed like Membrane’s presence was throwing off the scanner. They were too alike. “The Dib-stink walked into the house and then Zim went home.” 

Despite the fact that this was not out of the ordinary. Despite the fact that Dib had made it home before in far more harrowing circumstances. Despite her idiot brother’s strange durability. Gaz was worried. There was an eerie feeling about all of this. The kids at school seemed happy enough to move on but that was to be expected.They were always rather stupid. At least Membrane seemed to be trying. One of the few times he’s actually noticed Dib go missing. Search parties were called and all that could be found was Dib’s van, parked out in the middle of fuck-all. For once Membrane seemed to really care, or at least more than he usually did. Which was good. Gaz was trying to stay calm but there was this horrid pit in her gut and everything felt so wrong. 

“You’re going out looking again tonight right?”

“Of course.” Zim looked really tired. He had been out far more than Gaz of course. It’s not like he needed to sleep… or did he? Gaz should’ve read Dib’s notes on Irken more thoroughly. 

“I’ll come with you.” It wasn’t a question and Zim knew that. 

“There’s not a lot of room in the voot.” He grumbled, opening his packet of pop-rocks. 

“I’m coming.” 

***

The subject wasn’t particularly heavy-set in the first place. Dib had a surprising amount of muscle but aside from that, the boy was skinny. After several rumors about highly inhumane testing going on at the facility, Membrane labs had lost a significant amount of funding and at this rate they were likely not going to be able to continue with their side projects. On top of that, the subject has been highly volatile. There has been no ability to strike up any kind of deal in trade for more compliance. The boy had wings and there was no way to test if they worked, how long they might work for. Any attempt to speak was met with bitter silence. Any attempt to unbind him was met with an immediate attempt on whoever’s life. 

Dib had managed to injure seven co-workers and eighteen nurses in the time he’d been here. Worker’s compensation was expensive. It only made sense that Dib would have to be the one to pay. 

Membrane did feel a bit bad for the boy. He was always so rebellious, and this cut in his daily meals was going to be fairly difficult to adjust to. Dib had undergone a tremendous transformation. Membrane was sure he’d grown even taller since he’d arrived. Along with his newfound size, limbs and various DNA reconstructions, Dib’s body was not going to take this new diet very well. If they did get a better handle on funding then perhaps they could bring it back up… or perhaps he could study the effects of partial starvation on an insectoid, human, avian hybrid. There was so much to be done, it was rather exciting. 

* * *

_ He was losing it. He could feel himself slipping. It wasn’t easy spending months rotting in isolation; and he could very much feel himself rotting. His body was weak, he was thin and even his newfound feathers drooped. He hadn’t spoken out loud in over a week, and never to any of them. Weeks ago he decided he would die and watch his own flesh decay before he said a word to any of them. If they wanted to treat him like an animal then they could deal with one. There wasn’t much to do. Sure there were times he could stare at the light that might flicker on every once in a while but it was too dim.  _

_ He was slow about it. Digging his claws into the concrete, watching the rock crumble and turn to dust. It used to hurt but the hybrid’s nail beds were stronger now. There wasn’t much to do aside from dreaming. Dreaming about feeling flesh give way beneath the talons at his fingertips, to watch scarlet come bursting across his blackened claws. _

_ Cement walls, covered in divots and various marks. Aside from scratching at the wall all he could do was simply wait for whatever other experiments they had for him. Most of the various tests ended with him sick anyways. Cold sweat, and feverish weakness. Their newest experiment was seeing how long the hybrid could go without the minuscule food they gave him. He was hungry. He was tired, angry and hungry. It didn’t help that Zim was always there. He knew the Irken wasn’t really here. How could he be? Would he really come all this way and do nothing? They were enemies. They hated each other. Frankly all their past history pointed to the fact that no, if Zim were here, he would probably think this was funny. How could he blame the little Irken. This was hilarious. Even if he left now, he’d be hunted by any and every paranormal expert who took notice of him. A race to prove the existence of a new cryptid.  _

_ He was so hungry. This must have been punishment of some kind. Membrane had acted like he had no choice, but that was bullshit. The man was angry. _

_ Good.  _

_ The hybrid wondered what it would be like to hunt something. That’s what he wanted. He wanted to hunt something. Watch the fear in its eyes, begging before he snapped the light out of its eyes. It would be nice to make something else hurt. Maybe he couldn’t escape. Maybe he’d spend the rest of his life in this strange room. But eventually Membrane would get careless. Then maybe he wouldn’t be so hungry. _


End file.
